Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 15 (IANS) Stepping up his attack on Kerala’s ruling CPI-M, state Congress chief Sunny Joseph on Saturday accused the Marxist leadership of displaying a “mindset that celebrates the BJP’s victory in Bihar”, and of targeting Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal to divert attention from its own failures in the election.

Joseph said the Congress had done everything possible to bolster the INDIA alliance’s prospects in Bihar.

In contrast, he argued, the CPI-M’s top leaders — including Politburo member and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan — kept away from campaigning in the key state.

“We did not see the Chief Minister or any major CPI-M leader actively campaigning. Even in constituencies where CPI-M fielded its own candidates, Kerala’s leadership stayed home. They have no moral right to criticise,” he said.

Joseph also criticised CPI-M state Secretary M.V. Govindan for singling out Venugopal’s visit to his constituency, Alappuzha, during the hectic Bihar poll schedule.

“Venugopal is both an MP and a responsible national leader of the INDIA bloc. He fulfilled his duties. To portray this as a crime only exposes the CPI-M’s political insecurity,” he said.

The state Congress chief alleged that the Marxist party, which has often been accused of striking “tacit understandings” with the BJP, was now unable to tolerate Venugopal’s influence in Kerala politics.

“CPI-M’s political myopia prevents them from recognising their own compromises with the BJP. Venugopal’s presence in Kerala clearly unsettles them,” he said.

Joseph further accused the CPI-M of ignoring issues such as the BJP’s alleged manipulation of opposition votes and the impact of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process on the electoral roll.

“Instead of probing these matters, their priority is to attack Congress. Today’s CPI-M has no standing to even utter the word secularism,” he said, alleging that the party has aligned with communal forces “both covertly and overtly”.

Joseph’s comments come amid heightened political sparring between the Congress-led UDF and the CPI-M-led LDF following the Bihar election results.

–IANS

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